Dangerous Souls

Just a Little Green

Chapter 5-Advantage

April Day 3, 7:18 P.M.

"Shit," Mai cursed as she pulled the door again. Was it normally locked? Something inside her told her no and she started to feel panic fill her stomach. "Come on!"

Another tug. Nothing. "I'll break you down if I have to!" she grunted, feeling anger take over the panic, to which she was grateful. It didn't make her feel quite as helpless.

One more pull was all it took. The door opened with ease, almost knocking the girl off of her feet. "Come on!" she muttered as she raced into the building.

Her boss wasn't by the tea plants, but she knew he wouldn't be. Aside from the fact that all his drank was tea, the plants held no significance to him. She knew he was more interested in the tomato vines, and if he noticed the team's shift in energy like she had, he might have gone to test Mai's theory.

What better way to find out for sure than being live bait? He truly was an idiot scientist.

"Naru!" she gasped as she turned the corner down one of the aisles of tomato plants.

There he was, sprawled out on the ground two vines next to him as if retreating. Come on, Mai, think! You took that first aid course at school. There's gotta be something you can do!

With a shaky hand, Mai placed two fingers on her boss's neck and leaned forward to listen for breathing.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

Releasing the breath she unknowingly held, Mai sat up. "Naru, wake up!" she urged, tapping his shoulder. "Come on, I know you're in there, you need to wake up."

Panic was starting to rise and Mai noticed slight movement from Naru's side. It was the vines. That's right, I said that negative emotions could be what give the entity power to move the vines. Does panic count as a negative emotion?

With a calming breath, Mai started to pat the young man's face. "Naru, you need to wake up right now before I call Lin or Madoka." Her tone was much calmer and matter of fact that she noticed the vines retreat a bit. Not only did it elicit a response from the vines, she noticed Naru's eyes start to flutter. "Last chance, or I'm calling Lin."

With that, the young man's eyes fluttered open only to shut tight with a groan. Another relieved breath was released from the teenager and she moved back to allow him some room. Ever so slowly, Naru sat up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Jeez, Naru, you almost gave me a heart attack," Mai said, letting out another breath. Naru took to rubbing his temple as Mai caught a glance at the mark on his neck. "What were you thinking? Why did you-" But Naru held his hand up to silence her.

"Talk outside," he said, his voice rough as he worked his way to his feet. Once they had made their way out of the greenhouse, Mai shut the door and turned back to her boss.

"Why did you go alone?" she asked him. "We know that the actual attacks occurred when the victim was alone in the greenhouse. Why didn't you take Monk or Ayako or hell, even Masako! What you did was-"

"Incredibly stupid on my part, thank you very much for reminding me." The annoyed tone of voice that the young manager had, startled Mai as she realized that for once she was reprimanding him for the exact thing that she had done in the past. An interesting turn of events to say the least.

"Well, what were you doing?" she asked with a huff. And why hasn't anyone from Base followed me out here? What is going on?

"I had a theory and I wanted to test it out."